Mt Whitney

It was opening day for Iron Man, but i didn't know it at the time. I also didn't know that Iron Man was filmed partly in the Alabama Hills, at the base of Mt. Whitney. Thirdly, i didn't know that on opening day there was going to be some kind of publicity event with Robert Downey Jr. at a ranch across the street from my hotel. So i was kinda confused as to why i seemed to be eating breakfast with a big Hollywood crowd of people who were all complaining about the coffee, which was truly terrible. I advised this guy dressed like a director (whatever that means) to start a coffee assembly line on his table, with cups too hot to drink from waiting in line as a cooler cups became available for consumption. Days later in San Francisco i saw a picture of Robert Downey Jr. standing on a platform in front of a pile of rocks in the Alabama Hills. It was only then that i realized what had been going on. I should have looked to see if i could see my Jeep driving by in the background.


Mt. Whitney at dawn.

Lone Pine, as i mentioned before, happens to sit right below Mt. Whitney. I was staying in a hotel that looked right at it, and i couldn't help but go up and check out the area at the end of the road, at 8,000 feet. I was extremely relieved, after momentary panic, that the huge log jammed line of SUV's parading into the opening celebration, were in fact NOT clogging the road i needed to take up into the mountains. My road was right next to traffic jam, but empty.





Getting out of the car up there at the top, i was immediately overwhelmed by the great smells of the forest, consisting mostly of Pinyon and Ponderosa Pines. I couldn't believe how much i had forgotten about the area, as far as the great smells and all the types of flora and fauna. The facilities were not quite open for the season. In fact, i walked into the "campstore" next to the trail and found the place empty, with a bunch of boxes on the floor. People had just shown up for the season and were stocking the shelves. I wanted to help out, get a job and stay for the whole summer!


Mt. Whitney, later in the day. The main summit is on the right. The route to the top circles around the back of the spires, which make a long slope down to tablelands on the other side. If you're hardcore you can climb straight up the front side.

I had planned on just taking a look around at the trailhead and campground where i'd slept without a tent (my poor sister nearly froze to death). It was such a nice day, though, that before i knew it i was hiking up the trail towards the summit. It was weird that the trail still seemed vaguely familiar after having only been on it once 12 years ago. It starts off as a hot trail below a massive granite wall, with lizards basking in the sun on rocks sticking out of patches of snow.


Super nice day.

I knew i wasn't going to make it too far. I hadn't brought any food or water, i didn't have waterproof shoes, and it was clearly too early in the year to get very far without snow gear. After about two miles the trail permanently disappeared under the snow and the route splintered into pieces as previous hikers disagreed about which route would support their weight over all the underlying hidden holes that are common in rotten spring snow.



After post holing for a while i remembered that i had come to the California desert specifically to avoid being around snow, so i gave up my attempt to make it to the first lake (which was likely still frozen anyway). The altitude was killing me, i was ravenously hungry and i had made myself seriously behind schedule as far as the driving i had to do for the day.

All in all, I still seemed to be doing better than these two flatlanders from the valley (as they referred to themselves) who claimed they were going to climb the whole mountain. They had all brand new, never used gear (a good sign things weren't going to work), and were already having a very hard time making progress up the trail. Things didn't look good for them, and they admitted to having no mountain climbing experience. I had to wonder, then, why they would decide on Mt. Whitney in early spring. It's a 6,400 foot elevation gain over 11 miles and they were choosing to do it through rotten snow the whole way.


Two of the impressive summit spires. They look close but are actually 3 miles away.




The granite around Mt. Whitney is fantastic stuff, a lot of rock climbing walls around that probably get ignored as people are attracted closer to the summit.

The Art of James R. Ure

I finally have my new art website up and running so you can check it out if you haven't seen my work yet. I have reduced prices on the prints and the originals. I have done two paintings available for purchase that are Buddhistm related. Just click on the titles below:

Lord Buddha

The Awakening

The painting below is not specifically Buddhist but does touch on Buddhist themes:

The Veil of God

PHOTO: James working on a new painting that will depict the element Earth including bamboo stalks. I am painting a series of these based on the Taoist emphasis on nature, which will include all four elements.

~Peace to all beings~

The Big Sit Day 3.

Well today is day three of the meditation challenge and I'm going strong. I have been meditating before the start of the challenge but it's great to have this chance to do this with people from all over the world, which feels like a virtual 90 day retreat. I thought of all of humanity as if meditating in one beautiful mass whether morning, noon or night I figured someone was most likely meditating while I was and that was a beautiful thought.

Oneness rose softly yet steadily and firmly into the present moment yesterday while meditating as concentration focused on the cycle of breathes. Soon I was just aware of the breathing and felt as though I was riding in a vast ocean of oneness from wave to wave as my identity slipped from my minds grip with ease. In that moment I was the ocean and the wave but neither at the same time. It made me feel small but not in an insignificant way but rather in a liberating way.

I'm contemplating the genjokoan and hope to have some insights in the days to come.

~Peace to all beings~

The Big Sit of 2009.

"The Big Sit" challenge from the Buddhist magazine Tricycle will start tomorrow, which I'll be doing. In fact, I've been sitting regularly the last two weeks whereas before my practice had been all too spotty for the last year. Here are some of the specifics:

1). Sit in formal meditation for 20 minutes each day: (I'm sure sitting even for only 5 minutes is in keeping with this challenge because I have found that any amount of meditation is beneficial).

2). Listen to one Dharma talk a week on Tricycle.com: (or elsewhere I would add if you don't have access to Tricycle. I would also think reading a Dharma talk once a week or a few chapters of a Buddhist book would work as well).

3)-Study Dogen’s Genjokoan, the text selected for the period: The Genjokoan is posted here--let me know if the link doesn't work and I'll post the text in its entirity in a post. Plus, if you want to keep in touch with just readers of this blog in the sangha/community that we developed during this sit then just sign up an account on Tribe.net. The Tribe that my friend Paul has setup is called, "Commit to Sit." It's not hard to find via the search bar. Tricycle also has a group setup for, "The Big Sit" which will be beneficial because it will host Dharma talks and advice/guidance from teachers. If you're interested in it then all you have to do is sign up with them (it's free).

4). Commit to the sixteen bodhisattva precepts:
The sixteen Bodhisattva Precepts consist of the taking refuge in the three treasures (Buddha-Nature, Dharma, and Sangha), and:

The Three Pure Precepts

Not to do evil.
To cultivate good.
To help others.

The Ten Grave Precepts

Not to intentionally or maliciously kill, but to cherish all life.
Not to steal, but to respect the possessions and lifetime of others.
Not to misuse sexual energy, but to be honest and respectful in mind and action.
Not to intentionally deceive, but to speak the truth.
Not to misuse drugs or alcohol, but to keep the mind clear.
Not to speak of others’ faults, but to be understanding and sympathetic.
Not to praise oneself by criticizing others, but to overcome one’s own shortcomings.
Not to withhold spiritual or material aid, but to give it freely when needed.
Not to give vent to anger, but to seek its source.
Not to speak ill of the Three Treasures, but to cherish and uphold them.

5). Practice with others at tricycle.com or at a local meditation center (Or with us on Tribe!!).

6). Begin when you like. Tricycle’s staff will begin February 23.

~Peace to all beings~

Little Orange

Here's a little navel orange from our dwarf orange tree in the back yard.
It tasted as good as it looks.
5"x7" oil on canvas panel

Obama and the Lama.

This picture has been around for awhile now and while I have seen it on other sites I have never shown it here. It is one of my favorite pictures because it shows two of the world's most influential people who both happen to be heroes of mine together in one picture. It is a powerful image showing how spirituality and politics don't have to be enemies but can actually help improve each other.

According to the theory of the two wheels, the state leadership (worldly wheel) and spiritual leadership (religious wheel) exist along side. The state gives support and protection to the religion. The religion gives guidance to the leaders to make righteous policy and decision.

~Peace to all beings~

Dalai Lama Book Drawing Completed. Another One Begins.

I'm sorry that I didn't do the drawing for the Dalai Lama's new book, "Becoming Enlightened" until now but we did it today. My wife picked the name from my hat (the one I'm wearing in the profile picture. I'm pretty much never without that hat) and the book goes to a person who wishes to remain anonymous.

Thank-you all for reading the blog and for your interest in the book but the giving isn't done yet as I have a Zen t-shirt to give away. It is ash gray in color, has the Zen enso emblazoned upon it with the word, "enso" printed just below the enso circle itself. It is a men's U.S. size large t-shirt and it has never been worn.

~Peace to all beings~

Owens Valley

Owens Valley is an interesting example of desertification. I'm not going to get into the details, but it has a long history of mismanagement. During the California Water Wars of the early 20th century, Los Angeles built an aqueduct that effectively hijacked ALL of the water that fed the valley. Having acquired virtually all the surface water, Los Angeles then built another aqueduct and filled it with water pumped out of the ground. In a short period of time springs dried up, killing groundwater dependent vegetation, farms were ruined, wildlife died off, and the large Owens Lake dried completely, leaving a salt pan in it's place. Now sand dunes are forming on the north end of the lake and the valley is sometimes plagued by alkaline dust storms.

Lone Pine has a nice little park with some big cottonwoods.

Despite all that, Owens Valley is still pretty, and anyone who visits will recognize it as a quintessential vision of the American West. It's a part of most every American's subconscious, as it has been the filming location of countless movies, assuming whatever location in the American West that the script called for.

Lone Pine is chock full of unabashed beggars.

I was going to try and see what kind of picture i could get out of this condemned house, but in the 15 minutes i was there 3 different sets of people drove up and started talking to me for a long time about it's history. One of them was a lady that stops by every day to feed a crazy cat living under the front porch.


I'm no William Eggleston, but I thought this was another neat little building.

While exploring an attractive small town called Independence i was hugely surprised to find a road i'd never heard of. It went far up into mountains, to an altitude of 9,200 feet. It finally ends at an ideal entrance to the John Muir Wilderness. At the road's end you can take a trail that ascends only a couple of thousand feet before crossing the Pacific Crest and then dropping down into a vast area of wild tablelands high above treeline. From there you can continue north or descend down into Kings Canyon National Park.

The Sierra Nevadas

Years ago i had hiked from Kings Canyon to within 4 miles of this road, although at the time i had no idea. That blows my mind. I can't understand some of the things i didn't do back when i was in shape enough to do anything. That day of hiking, on summer solstice, after unwittingly coming to within 4 miles of this parking lot, i turned around and walked 12 miles back to the parking lot i had come from. There are longer routes you could take, making it a great idea for two carloads of people to exchange keys after starting on opposite ends.


Long switchbacks quickly descend more than 5,000 feet.


This looks just like one of the tracks in the game Dirt.

Only a few miles down the road from Independence is the town of Lone Pine. I'd been to Lone Pine once before, with my sister, when we climbed up Mt. Whitney years ago. At that time it seemed rugged but this second time it appeared very laid back and relaxing. I was amused after looking at a receipt from the local drugstore. I had been shocked at how much money it apparently cost me to buy a few items i needed, like sunscreen and some eyedrops. The receipt offered no help, listing every item merely as "Sundries." Technically, that was true.

Dust storms assault dried up Owens Lake.

The mountains along Owen's Lake are littered with old mines.

Panamint Valley

Looking like a mirage, Panamint Dunes beckon from about 9 miles away.

In just a day and a half i had driven the brand new Jeep 345 miles by the time i got to Big Pine California (just after visiting Eureka Sand Dunes). Of that, approximately 145 miles were on dirt/sand roads, and i'd spent the night in a dust storm. The car was truly filthy, inside and out, and i honestly couldn't stand it. So i washed it in Big Pine, a town much smaller, ironically than Lone Pine down the road.

A brand new car.


Every hard surface inside the car was as dirty as this door...


...and i accidentally spilled a bunch of sand in the back seat that was hidden in the folds of my backpack. That was irritating.

Practicing Impermance Through the Destruction of Buddhist Heritage.

The Sunday Times, Feb 8, 2009

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- The 200-year old Buddhist heritage in South Western city of Pakistan - Swat, is now in danger with local Taliban militants threatening to destroy the regions one of the precious museums, media reports here said. The besieged Swat museum which is now under the threat of Pakistani Taliban. It houses pre-Islamic heritage, mainly Buddhists artifacts and Buddha statue of Gandhara era.

"The museum will be reopened only after peace returns to the valley," says its Curator Aqleem. But it must be protected from Taliban, too, to be reopened. The Taliban has threatened to wipe out the symbols of pre-Islamic cultures in Swat and the museum has become a prime target of the militants - a repository of relics dating as far back as to the 3rd century BC, the Dawn reported this week (Wednesday). Swat museum is rich with many pre-historic artifacts and statues mainly belonging to the Buddhist civilization of the South Asian region. Its Buddhist statues are supposed to be the few remaining representations of the Gandhara art.

In November 2007, the militants blew up a historic Buddha statute in the Jihanabad area of Swat causing irreparable damage to the seven-meter tall historic statue. After the destruction of the Bamiyan Buddha statue of Afghanistan in March 2001, the meditating statue in Swat was the most precious one, according to the Curator.

James: As an historian and an art lover I am dismayed by this tragic destruction of these Buddhist relics and the region's ancient heritage. When I first read this story I could feel anger rise inside of my mind as well as frustration wondering why someone would do such a thing? Then I realized that a part of me sees a threat to Buddhism as a threat to myself or more accurately the ego-self.

I think this stems from the part of me who enjoys Buddhism for its "trappings," which means the statues, architecture of temples, the history of Buddhism, incense, the bells, the monk robes and on and on. These things are wonderful to be sure, they have their place and I don't see anything wrong in enjoying them in so far as I realize that they are not permanent nor can they bring me lasting peace, happiness and freedom from afflictive emotions such as desire.

It doesn't do me any good to be attached to a statue of Buddha who was a man who taught against attachment!! How silly of me. If Buddha were around to see my thought process and how attached I was toward a bunch of old, empty statues then he would probably smash them himself!! This fear is for the destruction of Buddhism, which has become a very important part of my life and unfortunately seeped into my self-identity/ego.

So If I dig deep enough I can see that what I'm truly afraid of is losing that "self" even despite all the meditating and working on letting go of the self. It's a bit like a virus that keeps mutating to stay alive looking for nooks and crannies to embed itself into thinking the last place I'll look is in structure of Buddhism itself. In other words, in the relics, traditions and history of the religion.

I shouldn't see this destruction as a loss but a chance to practice one of the most important and liberating teachings within Buddhism-impermanance. Traditions are wonderful, so are statues and architecture but in the end I must remember that they are merely fingers pointing to the moon and not the moon itself. This all said I don't think that we should just let all our museums be destroyed and looted (if we can prevent it) because even though they are just objects they do offer some benefits to society. It's just that I need not become agitated when objects/relics do disappear or are destroyed. Everything must go in the end and no amount of Buddha statues and relics is going to deliver me from samsara.

~Peace to all beings~

Birthday Bouquet

Our son sent his mom a pretty little bouquet for her birthday and I couldn't resist painting it.

5"x7" still life in oil
visit my store at www.toonsville.etsy.com it's a great place to buy art and stuff.

Zen Meditation Alleviates Pain.

ScienceDaily (Feb. 6, 2009) — Zen meditation – a centuries-old practice that can provide mental, physical and emotional balance – may reduce pain according to Université de Montréal researchers. A new study in the January edition of Psychosomatic Medicine reports that Zen meditators have lower pain sensitivity both in and out of a meditative state compared to non-meditators.

Joshua A. Grant, a doctoral student in the Department of Physiology, co-authored the paper with Pierre Rainville, a professor and researcher at the Université de Montréal and it's affiliated Institut universitaire de gériatrie de Montréal. The main goal of their study was to examine whether trained meditators perceived pain differently than non-meditators.

"While previous studies have shown that teaching chronic pain patients to meditate is beneficial, very few studies have looked at pain processing in healthy, highly trained meditators. This study was a first step in determining how or why meditation might influence pain perception." says Grant.

For this study, the scientists recruited 13 Zen meditators with a minimum of 1,000 hours of practice to undergo a pain test and contrasted their reaction with 13 non-meditators. Subjects included 10 women and 16 men between the ages of 22 to 56.

The administered pain test was simple: A thermal heat source, a computer controlled heating plate, was pressed against the calves of subjects intermittently at varying temperatures. Heat levels began at 43 degrees Celsius and went to a maximum of 53 degrees Celsius depending on each participant's sensitivity. While quite a few of the meditators tolerated the maximum temperature, all control subjects were well below 53 degrees Celsius.

Grant and Rainville noticed a marked difference in how their two test groups reacted to pain testing – Zen meditators had much lower pain sensitivity (even without meditating) compared to non-meditators. During the meditation-like conditions it appeared meditators further reduced their pain partly through slower breathing: 12 breaths per minute versus an average of 15 breaths for non-meditators.

"Slower breathing certainly coincided with reduced pain and may influence pain by keeping the body in a relaxed state." says Grant. "While previous studies have found that the emotional aspects of pain are influenced by meditation, we found that the sensation itself, as well as the emotional response, is different in meditators."

The ultimate result? Zen meditators experienced an 18 percent reduction in pain intensity. "If meditation can change the way someone feels pain, thereby reducing the amount of pain medication required for an ailment, that would be clearly beneficial," says Grant.

James: I'm not too surprised. It's always cool to see science agree with Buddhism because I believe that science and religion have more in common and complement each other more than people might realize. I'm sure that the results would be the same or similar with other forms of meditation--not just Zen meditation. Maybe this is why I have a high pain threshold? When I get tattoos I am able to deal with the pain quite well through the breathing techniques that I have learned via Buddhism.

This reminds of what "Anonymous" said in the last post about one of his teachers going without anesthetic for a minor surgery using the breathing techniques of meditation instead, which is a great example of how to use breathing techniques to alleviate pain. However, not everyone can do this even if they are an experienced meditator so I don't think someone is less of a Buddhist if they choose a general anesthetic. Of course there is a limit to that ability such as if someone needs open heart surgery but if it can help reduce aches and pains as well as even some minor outpatient surgeries then all the better.

That said, sometimes pain medication is necessary and I don't see it as violating the precepts when it is needed as prescribed by a doctor. Of course taking pain medication when not needed becomes the source of pain rather than alleviating it because it creates addiction and eventually can lead to loss of hearing (amongst other suffering) as seen in the American conservative radio talk show host, Rush Limbaugh.

Science and Buddhism can complement each other in many areas if we are willing to look for them and embrace the idea that both play integral roles in our lives. I personally would feel completely lost without Buddhism and meditation. In addition, without science I probably wouldn't be alive today to be able to learn what I have through Buddhism and thus make more progress along the middle-path in this precious human life. Buddhism is teaching science that many spiritual techniques and activities are beneficial and not just some made up nonsense.

Of course there are going to be differences to both schools of thought but if we can focus on what we have in common then I think both sides can reduce the ill-will toward the other, which is a good thing in my view. The less ill-will in this world the better.

PHOTO: Zazen hands. Elheiji (Eiheiji) Zen Monastery, Japan.

New York City part 2

The following day we started out by checking out Central Park and the surrounding area. Central Park is gigantic so we only walked through the southern bit of it. One of the most awesome aspects of NYC is the incredible subway system. Coming from Toronto which probably has the largest subway system in Canada, there is simply no comparison. Obviously there are far more people who live in and around Manhattan but the sheer size is really something to be envied. And the greatest part about it is that it runs 24 hours a day, so you never have to worry about missing your ride or taking a cab home, and to boot it is even cheaper than the paltry Toronto system.



After Central Park we headed down to the World Trade Center site. It didn't really look like much, sort of like a huge construction site. It was still a pretty impressive place to be and I'm sure even more so when they finish the new towers. The Statue of Liberty is just off the south shore of Manhattan so we headed down there afterwards. We were starving and of course freezing so we decided not to take the ferry to the statue but I grabbed a few shots from the shore.


We took a subway to little Italy and grabbed some dinner then ventured over to see the Brooklyn Bridge. It was pretty cool, but it's pretty annoying when the sun sets at 5 oclock and you're seeing everything at night. I still dislike night shots but I managed the best that I could.


By this point it was almost midnight so we went back to midtown to see the Rockefeller centre and Radio City Music Hall. It's funny how true is it that things seems bigger on TV. The skating rink is actually much smaller than a regular hockey rink but all of the buildings are still as huge as you imagine.


All in all New York is an awesome place to visit and ideally you could live there for a few months to really soak it in but at the very least I would suggest two weeks to see everything...in the summer.

Mental Illness: Meditation or Medication? Often, Both.

This is a long post but an important one because it touches on an issue--mental illnes, which some in spiritual circles choose to ignore. As many of you know I have been living with schizoaffective disorder for most of my life and have found great refuge, relief of symptoms and calm from Buddhism and meditation in particular. Of course, we all are "mentally ill" or else we wouldn't be here in samsara but some have severe, biological mental illnesses and require a hybrid approach of therapies and practices.

I notice that the more I meditate the easier it is to deal with my condition. Yet meditation alone isn't enough in my situation because despite meditating I still am debilitated by disabling symptoms such as paranoia, hallucinations, delusions (psychiatric delusions such as being convinced that you are the most horrible person on Earth), mood swings and chronic depression.

Thus I have found medications help fill the void and basically keep me alive because my depressive episodes easily lead to suicidal thoughts. I have found an excellent psychiatrist who has found a great balance of medications to keep myself as stable as can be expected outside finding a cure to the disease. In addition I talk regularly with a psychotherapist to help me keep track of my mood swings and give me tips on how to better manage my illness through establishing routines and developing other techniques. So I was excited when I read an excellent article in the current Buddhadharma magazine that arrived in my mailbox today about this very subject:

When Buddhism first came to the West, many teachers and practitioners initially dismissed psychotherapy as superficial, unnecessary and possibly counterproductive. As time went on...psychotherapy's relationship to spiritual practice started to undergo a reevaluation, and the two disciplines began to intermingle a bit more. In fact, many therapists and meditation teachers now agree that meditation and psychotherapy can be mutually facilitating. Meditators seem to progress more quickly in theraphy, while psychotherapy can improve the effectiveness of their meditation.

James: I am one of those meditators who have progressed more quickly in therapy thanks in part to my meditation practice. In fact, when I come into therapy and am having a difficult time with my mental illness she always asks if I'm meditating and the answer is often, "no." So in a lot of ways my meditation practice is a type of medication though I still do have episodes despite meditating. When I meditate on a regular basis it takes some of the severity out of my symptoms. That said, while meditation is very effective it isn't the entire solution and I think we Buddhists must admit that meditation isn't the solution to everthing--especially when medical issues are involved. It is true that meditation has been shown to reduce blood pressure, induce relaxation and other health benefits but it can not solve severe, biological mental illness symptoms in total.

Combining meditation and psychotherapy makes sense if we appreciate how they work in complementary ways. For the most part, meditation focuses primarily on developing capacities such as concentration and awareness, whereas psyschotherpay focuses primarily on changing the objects of awareness, such as emotions and beliefs. Of course there are significant overlaps, but this complimentarity suggests why combining both approaches can be very helpful. Meditative qualities can facilitate psychotherapeutic healing of painful patterns, while the psychotherapeutic healing of these painful patterns can reduce the disruption of spiritual practice.

James: Medication has toned down the volume of distracting stimuli in my head such as the hallucinations and calmed my nerves to enable me the opportunity to actually be able to practice. Before medications I wouldn't have had the patience to meditate due to manic episodes that kept my thoughts racing too fast to have the concentration needed to sit even for a few minutes. It's like trying to do meditation effectively after drinking four pots of coffee in an hour. Either that or I'd be so depressed that I couldn't get out of bed let alone have the motivation and intention to meditate.

So the medication has lowered the volume and reduced the static in my brain to put me in a position where meditation is actually even an option and be able to not just do it but find great benefit from it. I was drowning without medication and the water was up to my mouth and nose so the medications have drained the water down to my chest level. So while it's difficult to walk through chest deep water at least I can now (for the most part) breath comfortably, which gives me the freedom to meditate and have the ability to make progress upon the path that otherwise would be basically impossible. When it comes to using medication in combination with a Buddhist practice there are basically too camps according to the author of this article. First, the purists and second the pragmatists (I fall into pragmatist category):

Spiritual purists argue that if mental suffering is fundamentally spiritual and karmic, spiritual practice alone is appropriate to treat it. Moreover they are concerned that medication may dull or derail spiritual practice. They also worry that medications may reduce or distort awareness, and thereby make practice more difficult. In this view, medications can be novel forms of the "mind clouding intoxicants" prohibited by the lay precepts to which many Buddhists practitioners adhere. Therefore, taking these modern pharmacological agents is tantamount to violating this precept.

James: Let me say that I have found personally (and I've read that this is the case for many others) that my medications do the opposite of "dull or derail spiritual practice," "reduce or distort awarness." Without them I was so depressed, mislead by hallucinations (voices) and detached by dissociation that I was a nihilist believing in nothing and wanting the world to explode to end everyone's misery. At least that's what I thought at the time in my deluded mind.

It wasn't until I started to lower the static in my head through medications that I saw the benefits of spirituality and sought out Buddhism. Before then my mind was clogged and preoccupied with constant mental torment and anguish. It simply didn't have the stability at the time for a spiritual practice. Thus is was before medications that I had a dulled spiritual practice--not after. The medications increased my awareness of reality rather than dull it as they helped sharpen my concentration, focus and attention (I have Attention Deficit Disorder as well) to enable me to actually have a chance at understanding concepts like mindfulness. I know for certain that I'd be spiritual lost still without the addition of medication to give me a somewhat stable mind to build a spiritual foundation upon.

By contrast, pragmatists hold that spiritual practice alone is simply insufficient, or at least not optimal, for healing all mental suffering. While not denying the validity of some purist concerns, pragmatists argue that certain problems and pathologies respond best to other therapies, and one of those therapies can be medication.

James: Buddhism can indeed be more than enough for the regular depression and anxiety that occur with living in samsara. However, those diagnosed with a severe biological mental illness that involves chemical imbalances within the brain need the additional help that comes with proper medication and therapeutic monitoring. It can be very dangerous and irresponsible to prevent someone with severe deperssion from seeking psychiatric help because suicide is a very real threat and should never, EVER be ignored or blown off.

People with a severe mental illness who do not seek medication are usually playing with a loaded gun that could very easily go off in the form of suicide. Some people can get by with herbal supplements and vitamins but most people with severe mental troubles need stronger medicine. I tried the "natural route" and it didn't even cut the symptoms much at all.

The author who is a professor of psychiatry (and a Buddhist) did a study with Buddhist practitioners with suffer from mental illness: Our team of researchers, all physicians and long-term meditators, investigated a group of nineteen Buddhist practioneers (thirteen women and six men) diagnosed with major depression. These practioneers had all been doing meditation, mainly vipassana, for at least three years, had participated in two or more weeklong retreats, and had used antidepressants in the last two years.

Most of our subjects reported that antidepressants helped them with multiple emotional, motivational, and cognitive functions. Emotional changes were consistent with an antidepressant effect. The painful emotions of anger and sadness decreased significantly, but fear showed a smaller response. The positive emotions of happiness, joy, love, and compassion all increased, as did self-esteem. Subjects also felt calmer and that their awareness was clearer. One would expect this kind of result, given that the subjects were no longer wrestling with intense, painful emotions.

Clearly the large majority of these meditators felt that they, and their spiritual practitice, benefited significantly from taking antidepressants. Several subjects reported that the antidepressants enabled them to recommence or significantly improve their meditation and spiritual practice.

James: So while there still is no cure for schizoaffective disorder and while I still suffer from hallucinations, paranoia, bipolar, etc., the medications have given me my life back to where I can pursue things like spritituality. It has allowed me sharpen my awareness of reality and this life whereas before I was living in a kind of fog and everything was out of focus. So I can attest to the benefits of psychotherapy and medications. Thus, when added with meditation and other Buddhist practices it forms a powerful combination that has helped me greatly.

It's time that we realize that interdepenence includes science helping spirituality and spirituality helping science. The two working together can accomplish great things and don't necessarily have to be at odds. Sure there are some tensions between the two groups but there are areas where they fit perfectly and accent each other to benefit a great many people.

~Peace to all beings~

New York City part 1

After Washington we finally had two days to explore New York City. After a must deserved sleep-in we started by visiting the United Nations building which was only a few blocks from our hotel. The tour was fairly interesting and we were able to see the general assembly. From there we ventured to Grand Central station and then Time Square. The thing about New York is that there are simply too many interesting things to see and they all take longer than you anticipate. So after several hours in Times Square we decided to go check out the Knicks game.


Thanks to Mr. Tischelman and his unreliable daughter we were able to get some great tickets for only 40$. Lucky for us the Suns were in town and we got to see Shaq and Nash. It was my first NBA game and seeing Madison Square Garden was pretty awesome.



After the game we checked out the Empire State Building since it's open until 2am. It was super cold at the 89th floor observation deck but I grabbed a few shot of Manhattan. The above shot is of downtown, the Brooklyn bridge is on the left side and the Statue of Liberty on the right. The other looks out over Queens with the Chrysler Building on the left side.